Coronavirus Vaccine Advocacy Needs to Start Now
Experts should take note of the successes of childhood vaccination advocates
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Over the last few months, scientists have been racing at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine that will protect against the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, which has ground daily life in many places around the world to a halt.
But another group with very different goals has also been working tirelessly during this time. From the viral Plandemic documentary to the Washington D.C. press conference held by a group of mask-skeptic, pro-hydroxychloroquine physicians, conspiracists have sought to undermine the advice dispensed by health authorities and disrupt the fundamental narrative about the pandemic and public safety.
At the eye of this conspiratorial hurricane is the potential coronavirus vaccine. Medical conspiracists and anti-vaccine advocates have posited that any vaccine will simply be another project to line Big Pharma’s coffers, a cover for tech billionaires to insert microchips into people, or anything in between.
And their stories are catching on. While the majority of Americans say they will get the Covid-19 vaccine, a CNN poll conducted in June found that 33% of people surveyed said they would refuse a coronavirus vaccine, even if it were low cost and widely available. Some doctors and researchers, including Anthony Fauci, MD, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, worry that these figures indicate it might be harder to reach the herd immunity necessary for society to work its way back toward some semblance of normality.
But there is an opportunity here: An Associated Press-NORC poll from the spring concluded that 31% of people aren’t sure whether they’d get the vaccine. These people are “vaccine-hesitant:” they’re not as fanatical as the anti-vaccine contingent, but they have concerns, perhaps over efficacy and toxicity, and they aren’t sure who to trust on the issue.
